INDUSTRY
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Hospital systems, payers and life sciences companies improving access, quality and cost at once.
Engagements since 2021
Hospitals where we have redesigned patient flow
Average reduction in elective waiting times
OVERVIEW
We help hospital systems, payers, pharmaceutical and medical device companies improve patient flow, operating cost and commercial performance without trading away quality of care.
Healthcare organizations face a problem that most industries do not: demand they cannot turn away, with labor and funding that do not grow to match. Our healthcare work focuses on making existing capacity go further, through patient flow, theater and bed management, rostering and the redesign of clinical pathways.
We work with public and private hospital systems in the United States, the United Kingdom and continental Europe, and with payers and life sciences companies on commercial strategy, launch planning and operating cost. Our teams include former hospital executives and clinicians, and every operational redesign is built with the clinical staff who will run it.
WHAT IS SHIFTING
01
Demand is outrunning capacity
Aging populations and backlogs from recent years mean hospitals cannot build their way out. Throughput per bed and per theater hour has become the central question.
01
Labor is the binding constraint
Nursing and specialist shortages limit capacity more than budgets do. Retention, rostering and skill mix now matter as much as headcount.
01
Payment is shifting toward outcomes
Value-based contracts reward providers who manage whole pathways, which demands data and coordination most systems do not yet have.
01
Life sciences launches are getting harder
More specialized therapies, tighter pricing scrutiny and fewer field visits mean commercial models built for primary care no longer fit.
“The clinicians designed the new schedules themselves. That is why they are still running eighteen months later, long after the consultants left.”
Chief Operating Officer, A five-hospital health system in the US Northeast
SERVICES
All services
Webinar: scenario planning for the 2027 board calendar
scenario-planning-2027-webinar
Event
Elena Marsh and Priya Raman
A one-hour online briefing for directors and executives on building scenarios, triggers and prepared moves into the board's regular cycle.
Scenario planning that boards will actually use
scenario-planning-for-boards
Article
Elena Marsh and Thomas Reid
Most board scenario exercises produce a thick report and no decisions. A lighter approach, tied to triggers and pre-agreed moves, makes them useful.
Making cost savings last: a breakfast roundtable for CFOs
making-cost-savings-last-roundtable
Event
David Okafor and Hannah Cole
A closed-door breakfast in London for finance leaders planning their next cost program, built on the findings of The CFO Cost Agenda 2026.
Operations AI Benchmark 2026: from pilots to the P&L
operations-ai-benchmark-2026
Report
Marcus Lindqvist and Priya Raman
How 286 operations leaders are using AI in maintenance, planning and quality, how much of it reaches production, and what the companies seeing returns do differently.
Zero-based organization design, done properly
zero-based-organization-design
Article
Hannah Cole
Designing an organization from a blank page sounds radical. Done well, it is the most practical way to remove layers and duplication without starting a political war.
The first 100 days after a merger
first-100-days-after-a-merger
Article
Lukas Brenner and Amara Nwosu
The first hundred days after closing set the pace for everything that follows. What to settle before day one, what to do quickly, and what to leave alone.
The CFO Cost Agenda 2026: why savings fade and what keeps them
cfo-cost-agenda-2026
Report
Thomas Reid and David Okafor
A survey of 412 chief financial officers on cost programs, how much of the savings survive, and the practices that separate durable results from temporary ones.
Making AI pay back in operations, not in pilots
making-ai-pay-back-in-operations
Article
Marcus Lindqvist and Kenji Watanabe
Most operations AI never leaves the pilot stage. The few use cases that pay back share a set of traits that have little to do with the model itself.
Pricing power after the inflation years
pricing-power-after-inflation
Article
Elena Marsh and Priya Raman
Companies raised prices faster than costs between 2021 and 2024. Customers remember. How to set prices now that the cover of general inflation is gone.
Why cost programs fail in year two
why-cost-programs-fail-in-year-two
Article
David Okafor and Thomas Reid
Most cost programs hit their first-year targets. The savings disappear in the second year, for reasons that are predictable and largely avoidable.